The I Love You of a Drunken Friend
by PheonixFireBlack
Summary: Slash. Angst. Romance. What more could you ask for? Oh...probably to own Kevin or Joey, right? Yeah, well, we can't all get everything we want, now can we? Just click, read, and drop a line!


Title - The "I Love You" of a Drunken Friend By - PheonixFireBlack Summary - Slash. Angst. Romance. What more could you ask for? Oh...probably to own Kevin or Joey, right? Yeah, well, we can't all get everything we want, now can we? Just click, read, and drop a line! Genre - Romance Category - School of Rock Feedback - Please? Criticism - Flame if you must, but I prefer constructive criticism. Disclaimer - I own everything. It's all mine and you can't have it. PLEASE! Get a life!---Especially if you believed that. Yes, this is me...saying...I do NOT Own SoR! Oh, and I don't own the two lines of the song, either. Maroon 5 owns those two little quoted lines. I probably don't own the plot...hmm...I think I'm running out of things to NOT own. *laughs* Notes -Well...I was listening to "Iris" by the Goo Goo Dolls and "Through With You" by Maroon 5 when this idea spurred. So...yeah...song-inspired. *grin* Later!  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
Zackary Damon Mooneyham awoke in a strange place. It wasn't a place that he normally woke up at. This was a place that he only woke up occasionally. No...no, this was where he usually woke up, but something was different. Something...was out of place. What was it? Zack didn't know; all he knew at the moment was that something weird was going on and he had a headache. Maybe that was what was wrong. The headache could be it. Zack had a feeling that wasn't it, though. He shrugged and decided to ignore it. Just as he was about to get up, he was suddenly grabbed by the waist and pulled back down. Without warning, he remembered last night and knew what it was that was out of place.  
  
What had happened last night was completely irrelevant at the moment. What mattered right now was what was out of place. What was out of place needed to get away from his room and at least outside to the front doorstep. What was out of place shouldn't have been here. Well, to be completely honest, it should have, just not at the moment. What was out of place had tousled blond hair and, when they were open, bright blue eyes. The eyes were what seemed to reel Zack in. They also seemed to kill him. Only in the figurative sense, of course. But the blue eyes that belonged to the out-of- place thing were a pair that Zack could find himself lost in forever and longing to look at all day. What was out of place...was Freddy Jones. "Shit..." Zack muttered as Freddy pulled him closer. "Freddy..."  
  
"Mmm..." was the only response to be received.  
  
Zack rolled his eyes. It was just his luck that Freddy was a deep sleeper. "Damn..." He shrugged, "At least we don't have school today."  
  
"Shut up..." came the muttered request from the blond behind him.  
  
"If my parents come in and find you up here...in my bed...they're going to have some questions, Freddy."  
  
"Shit..." Freddy opened his eyes. "You've got a point." He was leaning on his arm now. Suddenly, he seemed awake and started rambling almost immediately,"Well...maybe I could scale down the side of the house, completely unnoticed, and reach the front door before breakfast!" He grinned mischievously.  
  
"Yeah...and I'm Queen of England." Zack said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "Freddy, the only way that would happen is if my parents weren't here. And if they weren't...we'd have no problem in the first place."  
  
"Right." Freddy seemed to think about their situation for a few moments. Suddenly, something clicked and he snapped his fingers. "Wait! What if you distracted them? I mean...why would they look out the window when you were...I don't know...going on about a fire upstairs or something?"  
  
Zack sighed, "Freddy...if I told them there was a fire...they would get out of the house!"  
  
"Right...well, that wasn't necessarily the example you were supposed to use, Zack."  
  
"Well, what would be a somewhat reasonable distracting comment, then? Cause I have no brain this early in the morning."  
  
"Oh, and somehow I do?"  
  
"Well, you came up with a fire, come up with something else. Plus, we all know you're the lier, not me."  
  
"Fine..." The blond sat there for a few minutes and grinned in a devilish manner.  
  
Zack looked over at him and groaned, "Why do I have a feeling that I'm going to regret my last words?"  
  
"Because you know me too well?" Freddy suggested in an uncertain, yet at the same time, completely knowing tone of voice. Shrugging, he continued with his idea. "Your parents still think that you're dating Summer...right?"  
  
"Well...technically, Summer still thinks I'm dating Summer."  
  
"Well, in all actuality, you are. I mean...you haven't broken up with her yet so..." He shrugged.  
  
"Anyway...your point?"  
  
"Oh, right. Well...go downstairs and tell them..." He paused for some kind of dramatic effect or something.  
  
"Here it comes..." Zack muttered, "End of the world as we all know it."  
  
"Tell them that Summer just called you and that she said she's pregnant." Freddy said this as if it were just simple, everyday conversation.  
  
"What?" Zack practically shouted. Well, he would have shouted, had his best friend's hand not flown over his mouth.  
  
Knowing Zack all too well, Freddy had clamped his hand over the dark-haired boy's mouth just in time. He was silently laughing and holding a finger to his lips, "Sshh...your parents are gonna come up here and find us anyway if you keep yelling like that." Freddy couldn't help but continue in his silent laugher. He went on silently because he knew that if any sound actually slipped from his mouth that it would all be lost and they would get caught anyway and this would defeat their whole purpose. Freddy laid back down on the bed and put the pillow over his face to suppress the inevitable hysterics that he was bound to collapse into.  
  
Zack could feel that his face flush. His cheeks were absolutely on fire. He could feel it. He hated being so easy to blush, but he couldn't help it. At first, Zack had stared at Freddy, almost in disbelief, but he suddenly realized how funny it all was. It was even funnier when Freddy spoke again.  
  
"Zack..."  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Think about..." He choked back more laughter, "Think about how your parents would react to that." Freddy had calmed down just long enough to let that thought pass his lips, only to cause both of the boys to collapse into hysterics again.  
  
That was the end of it all.  
  
Downstairs...  
  
Bianca Mooneyham had thought she was hearing things a few minutes ago. She could have sworn she had heard her son and he sounded...awake? She had decided that this was just not possible because Zack never got up before eleven on Saturdays and it was only nine. Something was definitely wrong. She had excused it for hearing things the first time, but then it happened again. "There it is again...laughter...What is that boy laughing at?" She shook her head and decided to go up and see what was going on.  
  
Bianca slowly made her way upstairs and down the hall to her son's room. She noticed that the laugher had grown louder in the last three seconds. "Something must pretty darn funny for him to laugh like that..." She paused about halfway down the hall. "Wait...someone else is in there with him. But...who--" She shook her head and decided not to strain herself over it; she would find out soon enough.  
  
She finally reached the door to her son's room; it was the only room marked with a sign in the center of it. The sign was black and in dark, blood-red, gothic lettering, it said "No Matter What You've Heard..." then skipped a line and said, "Rock is NOT dead." Bianca shook her head. She had been shocked to hear that he liked rock music. To be honest, she wasn't going to deny that she listened Billy Idol or AC/DC every once in awhile. She had actually been trying to get him into some of it for the last year, but he wouldn't hear of it. He was, according to his father, "Only allowed to listen to classical." Bianca had rolled her eyes when her husband said that, but complied in the end.  
  
She knocked lightly on the door. No answer. She shrugged. "I gave warning...now I'm going in." With that, she opened the door and frowned at the sight that lay before her. Zack was laying on his bed...and laying next to him was a very shirtless and very teary-eyed Freddy Jones. "What's going on here, boys?" She asked, more curiously rather than angrily.  
  
When Zack had heard the door open, his shoulders almost immediately stiffened. He closed his eyes and braced himself for the worst. However, instead of seeing the stern face of his father, when Zack opened his eyes, he was greeted with the very confused face of his mother. He sighed inwardly. "Uh...hey...mom..."  
  
"Well, I'm not sure why you're calling me mom. My son only gets up after eleven on Saturdays. Who are you? And what planet are you from?" She asked. Then her eyes fell on Freddy. Her eyebrows arched up. "And just what are you doing here on this lovely Saturday morning, Mister Jones?"  
  
"Well, you see...uh...hmm..." Freddy frowned. "Actually, I'm not sure...I went around the block this morning and the next thing I know, I'm...here..." What the hell was going on? He wasn't lying, he honestly didn't know what had happened between the time that he was walking around the block last night and this morning. He had some serious questions for Zack here in a few minutes.  
  
"Right...I'll...nod and act like I believe you and let you two go on with your lives while I go back downstairs and fix you some breakfast, ok?"  
  
"Sounds good ta me, Mom." Freddy had started calling her that two years ago. Everyone always assumed that it was simply because Bianca practically was like a second mother to him.  
  
"Why do you insist on claiming me to be your mother?"  
  
Freddy titled his head to the side, "Because I LOVE you!" He said was a slight sarcastic tone.  
  
"Right, of course you do." Bianca rolled her eyes. "Back to breakfast...later, boys." And with that, she left the room and closed the door behind her.  
  
Once Bianca left, Zack noticed that Freddy had become a bit fidgety. He shook his head; the boy's ADD was proving to be fairly amusing right now.  
  
When he knew the woman was out of ear-shot, Freddy turned to Zack. "Ok...what the hell happened between the time I was walking around the block last night and this morning?"  
  
"You...don't remember?"  
  
"Nope."  
  
"None of it?"  
  
"No," Freddy shook his head slowly, "Can't say that I do."  
  
"Oh..." Zack bit his lip. He had thought that last night meant something. Now he knew it was nothing but thoughtless nothing last night.  
  
Freddy's eyes widened and he put his hands on either of Zack's shoulders. "Why? What did I do? What did you do? Did I do something to you? Did you do something to you? Did I do something to me? Did you do something to me? Did I do something to make you do something to do to me?" He paused and frowned. "Wait...that last bit didn't come out right..."  
  
"Don't!" Zack shouted, "Don't...correct it...I get what you mean."  
  
"Ok...good..." Freddy didn't even notice that he was bouncing up and down slightly on the bed. "What happened, Zack?"  
  
"Well...I..." Zack sighed. They were going to be here for a bit.  
  
~*~Flashback~*~  
  
Zack had awoken for seemingly no reason at all. He glanced at his clock.; one forty-eight in the morning. He shrugged and decided to go downstairs for a bit, knowing it would be awhile before he managed to go back to sleep. He was sitting on a bar stool in the kitchen when he heard it. Someone was outside. From where their voice seemed to be coming from, they weren't too far from his house. However, where the person was located was far from what Zack was wondering about at the moment. Currently, he was wondering if the person had ever had a singing lesson in their lives. Whoever it was, was singing very flat and very off-key.  
  
He raised an eyebrow and went into the living room. He peered through the blinds and could hardly believe what--or rather, who--he saw across the street. Zack had to choke back the laughter as he listed to the person continue to sing their off-key song. He finally realized that it was a song by Switchfoot and...if he wasn't mistaken, it was "Gone". Zack decided to listen for another few moments.  
  
"Gone. Like yesterday is gone. Just pretend like you're immortal and prove me wrong." There was a pause. "No...that's not right...Oh well!" He continued with his song. "Gone. Like yesterday is gone. Like history is gone..."  
  
Zack chuckled and shook his head as he made his way to the door, opening it. Now, how to get his attention without waking everyone that the other guy hasn't managed to wake already. Zack shrugged and walked across the street, taking the time to position himself in front of the figure.  
  
He looked up and squinted. It looked like something--or maybe someone?--was just there, a few feet from him. And then..."Ow! What the hell did I run into?" He shouted.  
  
"You mean who...Freddy." Zack said.  
  
The blond looked up at him, "Wait...oh! Zack! Hey! What's up, man?" He had a huge, lopsided grin on his face.  
  
"You're smashed, aren't you?"  
  
"I would say yes...if I had clue as ta what you were talking about." Freddy's words were slurred, but surprisingly in tact as far as fairly correct sentence structure went.  
  
"Wow...I'm shocked that you can actually form a coherent sentence that I don't have to decipher. This is definitely an improvement from last week, Freddy."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
Zack made a "follow me" motion, which the blond did, and answered his question as they walked across the street. "Last week you were so loaded that I could hardly make anything you were saying out. I mananged in the end...but damn it was hard."  
  
"Uh...ok..."  
  
Zack rolled his eyes and led his friend inside the house.  
  
~*~End Flashback~*~  
  
Zack stopped in his story-telling.  
  
"So? Like you said, I came here shit-faced last week...and the week before that, too."  
  
"I'm going to skip all the boring and pornographic-like details and go to what happened...afterwards."  
  
Freddy smirked. It was highly amusing that Zack still wouldn't talk about, or really even get on the subject of sex...directly or indirectly. "Alright...go on, then." The blond said, drumming his fingers on his leg.  
  
~*~Flashback~*~  
  
Zack and Freddy were laying there on Zack's bed, and they both looked about ready to die. Freddy was too drunk to even really know what had been going on and Zack...Zack looked about ready to die...probably mostly because of embarrassment or something. Either way, both boys were laying next to each other and it was almost too quiet between the two of them. "So..." Zack was the first to break the God-awful silence.  
  
"So...what?"  
  
"I don't know...just had to break the silence."  
  
"Oh...right." Another few seconds went by. "Zack..."  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"There's...something I need to tell you." The blond sat up and leaned against the wall behind Zack's bed, looking pointedly at the brunette.  
  
Zack raised an eyebrow and looked up at his friend. "This sounds serious...why do I have the feeling that I'm going to regret hearing whatever your saying in the end?" Zack asked. It was out of Freddy's character to sound so serious. It wasn't the kind of serious tone that he used when you knew that, in the end, he would go on with some great punch line or witty comment. It was the drop-dead-like-a-heart-attack kind of serious tone that Freddy never used.  
  
"Zack...I, um..." For the first time in all of the seventeen years that Zack had known him, Freddy was...nervous? But...why? What the hell was going on? "I just..." He sighed, "Man, I don't know how to say this." The blond was more jittery and skittish than Zack could remember him being.  
  
"Wanna try...just saying it?"  
  
Freddy, who had been staring at his hands for the moment, snapped his head up and looked into Zack's eyes.  
  
Oh shit...he's serious. Zack thought. He's drop dead serious like a murderer on a killing spree.  
  
"Zack..."  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"I..." Freddy's brain or mouth--whichever the case may be--seemed to have stopped functioning at that moment. When he finally spoke, it was so quiet that he could barely hear himself.  
  
"What?" Zack asked, frowning. He was sitting next to Freddy now, their shoulders were almost touching they were so close.  
  
"I-I..." Freddy swallowed and licked his lips, "I love you..." He said, just under a whisper.  
  
Zack froze. He felt his shoulders tense, his cheeks turn crimson and his throat was suddenly dry. He licked his lips and swallowed. "I...I love you, too..." He whispered.  
  
Freddy looked up, eyes wide. "Really?"  
  
Zack nodded slowly and licked his lips again.  
  
Freddy smirked and kissed him.  
  
~*~End Flashback~*~  
  
Cause saying "I love you"  
Has nothing to do with meaning it  
Maroon 5 - Through With You  
  
"So..." Zack licked his lips in that nervous manner that he had seemed to perfected down to an art. "Did you...mean it or...was that just some...drunken rambling that came out of your mouth last night?"  
  
"I-I...uh...I...um..." Freddy swallowed. To be honest, he wasn't sure. This was a lot to take in all at once. Especially with the killer headache that he seemed to just realize he had.  
  
Zack was already starting to look disappointed, however, before he could say anything, his mother called.  
  
"BOYS! BREAKFAST!"  
  
"Alright, mom!" Zack yelled back, not quiet as loud as his mother had shouted at the two of them. He slowly started to get up, "It's ok, Freddy...you were drunk...I should have known."  
  
"No...Zack, I-I...This is a lot to take in...I mean...I didn't remember any of this and...all the sudden your telling me that we told each other that we love the other last night and now...now your asking me to tell you if I was serious or not and...I just..." Freddy sighed and ran a hand through his hair, letting his hand rest on the back of his neck for a moment before letting it drop to his lap again.  
  
"I guess...it is a lot, huh?" Zack looked uneasy now. As he walked back towards the bed, he was biting his lower lip. How could he have been such an ass? "Freddy, I--"  
  
"Don't you dare apologize, Mooneyham."  
  
"But, I--"  
  
"I don't care."  
  
"Right..." Zack went back to chewing his lip.  
  
"Look, Zack...drunk or not...I don't just...throw that kind of thing around all the time..."  
  
"So...then, you..."  
  
Freddy nodded, "Yeah...I..." He swallowed, "I meant it."  
  
"So...last night wasn't just...some drunken rambling...it was...an abstinent, direct...thing...right?" Zack asked slowly, not noticing that he was leaning towards the blond slightly.  
  
"Yeah...I was serious...I don't even know if I was completely drunk then...obviously enough for me to not remember it, but--" Freddy was cut off by Zack's lips brushing his and the fire that always seemed to spark when they kissed washing through him. He immediately took the action to kiss him back.  
  
Downstairs...  
  
Bianca was seriously starting to wonder about her "two boys". Freddy was practically her adopted son. She had actually considered asking Melissa if they should give each other permission to take the other's son in something were to happen to one of them, just so the boys wouldn't have to be separated. She made a mental note to talk to Melissa about that one later when they talked. Now, she had to figure out what was taking the two boys so long. She had already told them that breakfast was ready. Usually, they would have been down in a flash, already eating.  
  
Bianca went back up the stairs and down the hallway for the second time that morning. She knocked on her son's door again, receiving no answer just as before. And just like earlier, she opened the door with no real warning. This time, however, the two boys didn't notice her immediately. She rolled her eyes at the sight before her. "It sure took you two awhile..." She muttered, trying to get their attention.  
  
"Wha--I-I--" The look on Zack's face was absolutely priceless when he realized that his mother was in the doorway.  
  
"Honey, that goes for both of you, breakfast is ready." Is all the brunette woman said before turning and leaving again.  
  
"That was..."  
  
"Screwy?" Freddy suggested.  
  
"I was going to say unexpected, but ok...screwy works."  
  
"I think screwy works even better."  
  
"Oh, no, Freddy, I do believe you're wrong."  
  
"Oh, no, Zack, I do believe it is you, my friend, that is wrong."  
  
With that, the two boys went downstairs, alternating in their insult- banter. Everything was back to normal...except Bianca. When the two boys came into the kitchen and she caught sight of them, she cracked up and walked, going to the living room.  
  
The two teenagers looked at each other.  
  
"The woman is scaring me." Zack said.  
  
"I think she's gone mad. Do we need to go get the nice men in white coats to come collect your mother, Zack?"  
  
"It would probably be a good idea. We can make the call after breakfast."  
  
"Good...that's settled."  
  
And the two sat down at the kitchen table and ate their breakfast of pancakes, eggs and bacon. All the while, they were making jokes about how Bianca would actually react to being taken to a mad-house. Then, they picked up on a bit of her phone conversation from the living room.  
  
"Melissa? Hi! I've been meaning to suggest something to you..."  
  
~*~*~*~  
  
Notes - Well, that was fun, wasn't it? I thought it was. I liked the title...it was a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing. *grin*  
  
I think my favorite part was the bit about having the "nice men in white coats" collect Bianca. That was great fun. But I did also really like "He's drop dead serious like a murderer on a killing spree." line as well. I don't know...I guess it's a tie between those two bits.  
  
ANYWAY! Drop me a line and let me know what ya think! *grin*  
  
Later days, ~PFB 


End file.
